STOCK MARKETS — Resource index boosted by Yamba Lake

The election of a new parliament, of course, has little effect on western markets, although gold investors may take heart in the Grits’ historically looser monetary policy and the resulting effect on inflation and the price of gold in Canadian dollars.

The yellow metal remained in a tight range at the US$370-per-oz. level over the trading period ended Oct. 26, while the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource index gained more than 63.71 points at 1,451.80 on follow-through from the diamond discovery at Yamba Lake in the Northwest Territories. The composite index added almost 15 points to close at 1,010.51. The previously announced Yamba Lake discovery by Alberta-listed Mill City Gold, Fibre-Klad Industries and Tanqueray Resources pushed all the issues up sharply.

The group announced that three samples weighing a total of 161.6 kg contained a total of 152 micro-diamonds and 39 macros.

Mill City, which is earning a half-interest, closed up $1.32 at $1.86. Fibre-Klad, with a 21% diluted interest, jumped $1.63 to $2.35 and Tanqueray, which owns a 29% diluted interest, more than doubled to $3.20. Further drilling is planned on the property for the coming winter. The Yamba Lake discovery prompted partners Sarabat Gold, Apex Energy, Winspear Resources and Consolidated Newgate Resources to accelerate exploration of their claims to the southwest.

The group is planning a surface geophysical program to identify targets for drilling.

Following an initial jump, the issues lost ground, with Sarabat down 10 cents at 20 cents, Apex off 14 cents at 48 cents and Consolidated Newgate down a nickel at 31 cents.

Winspear managed to buck the trend, gaining 20 cents to close at $1.25. Diamond explorer Consolidated Pine Channel Gold reversed an extended downtrend in its share price by announcing that drilling intersected what appears visually to be a kimberlite pipe on the Tobin Lake joint venture in Saskatchewan.

Visual inspection of the core indicates the presence of purple pyrope garnets, as well as green chromite grains.

The project is a joint venture with Golden Peaks Resources.

Consolidated Pine Channel leapt $1.63 to $2.28 while Golden Peaks added 82 cents to close at $1.45.

Canarc Resource took a run over the period, gaining $1.25 to finish at $4.40. The company plans to buy a million units of Consolidated Magna Ventures at $2.10 per unit and give that company the right to joint-venture a selection of Canarc’s future property acquisitions in South America.

Canarc is already active in the Kilometre 88 area of Venezuela, as well as in Guyana and Suriname. Consolidated Magna added 27 cents, closing at $2.67. With no obvious turnaround in sight for the current poor copper market, the porphyry copper-gold development group managed by the Robert Hunter-Robert Dickinson team is facing some share-price erosion.

El Condor Resources, which holds a 60% interest in the South Kemess copper-gold project in north-central British Columbia, dropped 60 cents to close at $3.80.

The company, along with 40% partner St. Philips Resources, is looking for a buyer for the property. St. Philips lost 19 cents to close at $1.45. Taseko Mines, which is trying to sell a drilled-off copper-gold deposit in southern British Columbia, edged down 63 cents to $10.50 while Pacific Sentinel, which is drilling off a large copper-gold system on its Casino project in the Yukon, slipped 15 cents to $2.65.

Cumberland Resources climbed 14 cents to close at 80 cents. The company recently completed private placements totaling $900,000 to fund its share of further exploration on the former Asamera Mineral gold properties near Rankin Inlet, N.W.T.